The present invention relates to fighting outdoor fires and particularly to a tool set useful for fighting fires in different types of terrain and vegetation.
With increasing movements of U.S. wildfire firemen from one geographic region to another the need for a better firefighting hand tool has evolved. Certain developments regarding such hand tools are disclosed in Lugtenaar U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,493, which discusses several of the problems faced in fighting wildfire fires in the naturally occurring vegetation.
For wildfire firefighters to be ready to do their work, they need to have all the necessary tools readily available when they are transported to a fire in any type of terrain likely to encountered in the geographical region where they are to be working. In places where heavy layers of grass roots and the like are found, shovels, grub hoes, and scrapers may not be very useful and fire may have to be beaten down to be extinguished. In other situations trees and brush need to be cut to prevent spreading of fire, and a firefighter may need an axe to be effective. However, cutting small low brush with an axe usually results in quick dulling of the axe blade as it encounters dirt and stones on the ground beneath thin branches.
Once flames have been extinguished the "black line" around a burned area has to be checked, using rakes, grub hoes, or similar tools, to discover, extinguish, and cool embers, to prevent rekindling of the fire. Tools such as the Pulaski firefighting tool, while popular, have a grub hoe blade whose weight is dominant over the opposite axe blade usually on the same handle. When such blades become worn through use, replacement of the entire Pulaski head is undesirably expensive. When firefighters have tried to improve the Pulaski tool by increasing the width of the grub hoe blade, the revised shape has made the tool more dangerous because of the increased unbalancing effect of the larger blade. Additionally, the prior art Pulaski tool has been undesirable heavy and therefore tiresome to use.
Adjustable shovels have been known previously and can be carried more safely than shovels with fixed blades. The adjustment mechanisms previously known, however, have been less secure than is desired.
While the multipurpose firefighting tool disclosed in earlier U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,493 included an effective direct contact tool for beating down flames, it is desired to have such a tool in a form which is less tiring to use for sever a 1 hours continuously.
What is desired, then, is an improved multipurpose tool for fighting wildfires that can be manufactured and maintained at a reasonable cost, that is not unduly heavy, that is well-balanced, and that is safe both in use and during transportation to a wildfire, including transportation by aircraft and during parachute drops.